Coral Evolution in Action (Image 3)

With ocean temperatures and acidity levels increasing more every year, coral reefs are rapidly declining. Mikhail Matz, a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin, is monitoring this process at the genomic level. Matz, an expert on coral DNA, says that corals have a substantial potential to evolve and he will watch this process very closely using next-generation gene sequencing devices to study the coral's genetic makeup.

In 2009, using the "next-gen" sequencers at UT-Austin, Matz and his team sequenced the entire transcriptome of the common Pacific coral--one of the first successful full-transcriptome sequences for a non-model organism. To learn more about this research, see the UT-Austin news story, "Catching Evolution in Action." [Image 3 of 3 related images. Back to Image 1.] (Date of Image: October 2004)